2014 Underwater Photography Photo Contest winners, Wide angle marine life category, 3rd place. (Photo by Valda Fraser/UnderwaterPhotography.com)

“Unexpected x2 (a.k.a. “how much is that doggie in the window”)”. Taiwan, 2011. (Photo and caption by Asian (Street) Impressions)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Boeing B-29 (#10) from the 24th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group after an emergency landing at Iwo Jima on April 24,1945. (Photo by U.S. Air Force)

An Anti-Balaka fighter, member of a militia opposed to the Seleka rebel group, puts a knife to his throat showing what he would do to any Seleka, on the outskirts of the Boy-Rabe neighborhood in Bangui on December 14, 2013. France raised alarm on December 13 over worsening violence in the Central African Republic, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged warring Christians and Muslims to stop the bloodshed that has left more than 600 dead in the past week. (Photo by Ivan Lieman/AFP Photo)

Gardener Peter Glazebrook poses for photographers with his world record breaking onion at The Harrogate Autumn Flower Show on September 16, 2011 in Harrogate, England. Peter Glazebrook from Newark, Nottinghamshire claimed a Guinness World Record with his giant onion weighing 8.150 kg. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

People observe the landslide-affected area after the landslide at Lumle village in Kaski district July 30, 2015. Landslides triggered by torrential rain in Nepal swept through villages on Thursday, killing at least 30 people close to the nation's most popular trekking circuit, home ministry officials said. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A model presents a creation of designer Asifa Nabeel during Bridal Couture Week 2016 in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, November 27, 2016. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)